Lead Stories In February Richard Kreimer, a 55-year-old homeless man, announced that he’d reached a settlement (the terms remained undisclosed) in his lawsuit against a New Jersey bus company that had allegedly denied him service because of his body odor and irritating behavior, but he dropped his suit against the city of Summit, New Jersey, which he claimed had wrongfully kicked him out of its train stations. In 1991 Kreimer received a total of about $230,000 in his suit against Morristown, New Jersey, where he’d received similar treatment at the public library....

This happened right out of high school, when I was 18 or 19 and such a clueless geek. I had made fake IDs for myself and all my friends, and one night when we were drinking on Rush Street I wound up meeting this girl and we hit it off. She said, “Let’s go to the Belmont rocks,” and being from the burbs I didn’t know where or what that was–I was thinking she’s going to take me to some rock club....

Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » “A lot of folks think it’s a really good idea to have someone to rely on for information besides what the administration provides us,” said 49th Ward alderman Joe Moore, one of the leaders of the still developing group of more or less progressive-minded alderman. “It’s by no stretch of the imagination meant to be antagonistic to anybody, but we think the City Council is actually a separate branch of government and needs some independent information....

This annual showcase of experimental theater, performance, and music from Chicago’s fringe, coproduced by Curious Theatre Branch and Prop Thtr, runs 8/24-11/4. This year’s schedule features two full-length trilogies, “The Madelyn Trilogy” by Beau O’Reilly and the “Danger Face Trilogy” by Idris Goodwin. Admission is $15 or “pay what you can,” except where noted. Performances take place at the Prop Thtr, 3502 N. Elston, the Athenaeum Theatre, 2936 N. Southport, and elsewhere as noted....

I’m a 22-year-old woman, generally happy, but I have a problem with cheating. I’ve never been faithful to anyone, and I’ve had many relationships with men and women. Some found out, some didn’t. I’ve finally found someone I feel I can spend the rest of my life with. I’m happy with him on every level–but I still cheat. I’ve been told this could be sociopathic, but I’m not sure. I’ve always really loved sex, all kinds, and have done everything short of urine, feces, or anything illegal....

I know this isn’t a sexy or even remotely enjoyable subject, but I could really use your advice. I’m an 18-year-old girl, though I can easily pass for 25. I’m pretty attractive (though I think everyone has things about them they would change), thin, and altogether relatively normal, although I graduated high school early. As a result, I have plenty of opportunities to go out with guys. My problem is this: Although I’m not in any rush to lose my virginity, I can’t even bring myself to take my clothes off in front of other people because of the long, self-inflicted, crisscrossed scars that cover parts of my legs....

Keyboard whiz Tom Brislin is a fresh-faced lad of twentysomething, but don’t worry about the rock industry chewing him up: he’s already been tossed to the Yes aficionados. A child prodigy in classical piano, he claims his sisters exposed him to prog in the womb, and by 2001 he’d already toured with Meat Loaf for three years. But when his starship-trooping heroes hired him for the YesSymphonic tour, Brislin had to face the elders: “People are really passionate about this band,” he said in the April 2002 posting of Notes From the Edge, “and some people just don’t even want to hear it if it’s not Rick Wakeman....

Starving Artistes Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » That was never more obvious than during the 2004 season. The company had just taken the dicey step of relocating from the 900-seat Athenaeum in Lakeview to the Harris’s 1,400-seat venue on the north edge of what was becoming Millennium Park. But the park was still a hard-hat zone, people didn’t know where the theater was, and the company had its own identity issues....

A dirty puppet is one of the many funny–if not quite original–touches in B.R.A.T. Productions’ sketch-comedy show, Poppy Seed Lane. There are also gay Republicans, a George W. Bush impersonator, an embarrassing secret that’s revealed on an airplane trip, and some hilarious carols, each explaining why the racist singers are looking forward to a white Christmas without a certain ethnic group around. Most of the sketches could use some shaping and a director (none is credited), but the ensemble–Bill Larkin, Robyn Scott, Anna Mitcham, and Terry Kane–work well together, and Scott has a knack for creating diverse characters....

Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » With writers drooling over Alex Rodriguez and his “charmed season”—the New York Yankee is leading the majors in home runs, runs batted in, slugging, and runs (and by significant margins)—little ink has been spilled on the remarkable achievement of the Detroit Tigers’ Curtis Granderson. Through 144 games this season the center fielder has tallied 22 triples. No one’s hit that many since 1949, when Dale Mitchell did it for the Cleveland Indians....

Hard Love Theatre Or Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » Still, if Israel’s taught the Jewish diaspora anything it’s how not to be defined by one’s enemies. Pointing out the fissures in Israeli culture may seem frivolous (and possibly dangerous) when there’s a war on, but it’s an absolutely necessary frivolity because it suggests that Israeli life–even Israeli feuds–will continue, Katyushas or no. A sort of Talmudic melodrama offering lots of argument along with its romantic contrivances, Hard Love tells the tale of two Israelis–Zvi and Hannah–who were married 20 years ago, when both were Hasidim living in the ferociously strict Meah Shearim neighborhood of Jerusalem....

Since he made his debut nearly 70 years ago, Batman has generated nine movies, three TV series, and hundreds of comic books and graphic novels that run the gamut from cartoonish sci-fi to stark social drama. As Les Daniels documents in his book Batman: The Complete History, the Caped Crusader’s story has proved extremely plastic. Created by comic-book artist Bob Kane, he began as a grim vigilante who sometimes killed criminals on the spot, but by the 1950s he’d become a strapping father figure whose nuclear family included not only Robin the Boy Wonder but Batwoman, Bat-Girl, Bat-Hound, and the elfin Bat-Mite....

ANGUS, THINGS, AND FULL FRONTAL SNOGGING, Griffin Theatre Company. Christina Calvit’s cheery adaptation of Louise Rennison’s best-selling novel is high-energy and fun–and best suited to the young teens who are Rennison’s devoted readers. Georgia (Katherine Nawrocki) is a goofy, smart-alecky 14-year-old English schoolgirl who sharply observes and questions the rituals involved in getting and keeping a boyfriend. She’s surrounded by chaos: her father (Matthew Lon Walker) lost his job and has taken a new one in New Zealand; her mum (Katie Jeep) might be having an affair with the interior decorator (also played by Walker); her best friend, Jas (Sara Hoyer, who’s perky but with an edge), is crazy about a boy (Kevin Kingston); and Georgia’s cat, Angus (Paul S....

Krapp’s Last Tape, Happy Days, Endgame On opening night the show that seemed destined for humorless disaster was Clove Productions’ Krapp’s Last Tape, the elegant 1958 one-act in which the decrepit Krapp listens with unmitigated disdain to tapes he recorded of himself 30 years earlier. It started 45 minutes late, and performer Michael Martin spent much of that time nervously running–and bungling–his lines in the lobby. But by the time he finally appeared onstage, his mane of gray hair as disheveled as his ill-fitting black trousers and vest, his incongruous white shoes polished to a Sunday-school gleam, he’d mastered this heartbreaking buffoon....

The quiet, tree-lined residential streets along Fullerton near Lincoln certainly don’t look like they’re part of a dangerous neighborhood, but that’s what some local residents claim they’ve become. The residents say the source of the problem is the Lincoln Park Community Shelter, and on June 4 four of them filed a suit to shut it down. Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » The highly regarded, not-for-profit homeless shelter, which has been around a lot longer than many of its loudest critics, is funded and operated by parishioners from four mainstream Lincoln Park churches: Lincoln Park Presbyterian, Saint Paul’s United Church of Christ, Church of Our Savior Episcopal, and Saint Clement Catholic Church....

A cuckoo-brained computer musician from Baltimore, DAN DEACON picked up a thing or two about sampling and composition at Purchase College’s music conservatory and at age 24 already has six solo releases to his name. He’s done artsy, minimal twiddling and tonal haikus as well as some, like, totally groundbreaking IDM, and he’s working on an EP of music assembled entirely from his own vocals and much-abused Buddy Holly samples. But his favorite thing to do (other than name songs–“This Crazy Mouse Won’t Leave Me Alone” and “All Wet and No Boner” are pretty representative) is whip twinkly analog melodies into a creamy froth with happy-dog-humping-a-leg beats....

In 1998 Second City producer Kelly Leonard walked by a locked cabinet on the third floor of the theater company’s Wells Street headquarters for the last time. “It had been there as long as I’d been there–since at least 1992,” he says. “It had been bugging me. No one knew what it was, and no one had the key to it, so I broke into it.” Inside he found a trove of old Second City scripts, some audiotapes, and a bunch of reel-to-reel film....

On July 20, Cook County clerk David Orr brought reporters to his office for the annual unveiling of the county’s tax rates. According to Bill Vaselopulos, Orr’s chief financial aide, this year’s tax rate is (drumroll, please) 5.98 percent, down from last year’s rate of 6.28 percent. As Vaselopulos patiently plowed his way through a glossary of mind-numbing tax law definitions, reporters pored through a thick press release, searching for the elusive answer to the question on everyone’s mind: How much were taxpayers going to be stuck for come July 31, when the second installment of the annual tax bill comes out?...

I figure the people who go to see James Carter–a ferociously virtuosic multireedist who soared out of Detroit in the late 80s–fall into two camps these days. The first pays its money to marvel at his musical athleticism: hearing his flashy tricks on tune after tune is like watching Paul Konerko knock pitches out of the park during batting practice. The second comprises listeners who recognize the spectacle for what it is (a lot of sound and fury) but keep hoping for glimmers of genuine artistry–which in fact have appeared with increasing frequency over the years....

All This Heavenly Glory Looped Set against her later missteps and unfortunate encounters, the stories from Charlotte Anne’s youth highlight just how few steps children are removed from their adult selves. A dateless teen, she still hasn’t seen much satisfying relationship action by the time she’s 30. But she’s well educated, pretty, and hardly impoverished, and though her parents are divorced, it’s not a source of great trauma. Hers is a basically happy childhood that nevertheless results in adult drift–a common enough progression in the real world, but rare in fiction, where grownup troubles usually have clear antecedents in dysfunction....